Kouhai has a minion!

kouhai the Lucky

About me!

I've only ever lost one game.
My name is Kouhai, and I'm a superstar soccer player. Well, not a superstar quite yet, but I will be! I hope so, at least. I think if I keep doing well, I can even get a scholarship to college. I'm not sure what I will do in college yet, though. Hopefully math. I do love math!
I'm jersey number 13. I like the number 13. My coach said at the beginning of the year that 13 was a cursed number, and he'd let me have any other number I wanted. I wanted 13 though! Finally, he relented. Who was right? I was right! Most of the year, we won every single game. I'm not saying it was all of my own doing, because I have excellent teammates, but I like to think I pulled my weight.
You see, I'm center-mid. My coach says, "games are won or lost in the midfield. You're small, but you are mighty. I trust you." Wow! What a compliment! I was accepted onto the varsity team, even though I'm a sophomore. Everyone else is a junior or senior, but the varsity team needed a center-mid, and well, here I am!
My streak of winning had me soaring in the air. Get this: They even put a poster of me in the school hallway! At first it made me nervous because I wasn't sure if people were going to draw moustaches on me with Sharpie markers, but no one did. I like to think I'm well-liked.
However, I did lose one game. Let's start off with that summer day...

Well... here it goes!

I didn't know my father very well growing up. I spent the most time with my mom, and only one week out of the summer with my dad. He's not a bad person or anything, but he has made a lot of mistakes.
The summer had started and my dad was driving up to come get me. I had a very bad headache that day, and I told my mom I didn't want to go stay with Dad.
"Kouhai, it's only a week," she sighed.
I didn't have the energy to plead my innocence. I wasn't trying to skimp out on hanging with Dad, but I really did have a bad headache. But it was only a week. Then I come come home and see Benz again and be with my team.
On the car ride back to Dad's, my headache turned into a migraine. My tummy was upset and I felt very cold. By the time we got to his house, I was extremely sick. The world was spinning and I couldn't speak. My thoughts were drifting and flighty. Eventually Dad took me to the hospital. But it was too late.
I don't remember much of it. I just remember being very scared, in and out of being awake. It turns out I had a very bad sickness that took away my hearing. If I would have been treated sooner, I would not have lost my hearing.
I have 50 db of hearing loss in one ear, and 60 in the other. The world was very scary for a long time. I no longer felt like I knew what was going on anymore. Little things I never thought about before were running my life. I couldn't watch some YouTube videos anymore because no one put captions on them. I felt very bad having to wear hearing aids, because I thought they were ugly, and no sixteen year old should have to wear them. But most of all, soccer was different. When I was recovered and could play again, it just wasn't the same.
I didn't realize how much before that I used to hear my teammates calling out to me. It was all up to my vision to help me.
I lost my first game back on the field. I cried and cried all night, because I never knew what it was like to lose. Benz hugged me and told me that I was great, and that one loss didn't mean anything. It wasn't too bad. But I was angry. I was angry at Dad and angry at myself. But I overcame it later. I just had to focus.

Lucky Number 13

I closed my eyes once again and for a long while that night, and I imagined myself on the field again. I imagined the way my heart raced, and my vision became so focused I could concentrate on every blade of grass below my feet and stretching out before me in an endless sea of green. Everything became slow motion when the ball came into my territory and I could let my instincts take over. I had control over everything around me. The crowd pulsed with my heart. Every eye that I met of another player shared an agreement with me that we were of our own kind, and that everything that wasn’t the ball, everything in the whole world, didn’t matter at all. I was electric. I was little, but I was mighty…
I have a good community of people who support me and love me. I feel very lucky that I am alive, and that I can play. Things aren't the same, but that doesn't mean they are bad. I won athlete of the year that year. I still play Varsity, and I have a good boyfriend. I even got my hearing aids in my favorite color! (Blue!)
Through all the hard things that have happened, I overcame what seemed like I would not be able to. You will always surprise yourself with what you are capable of. We are all strong inside.
Well, I gotta go now. It's time for practice, and if I'm late, Coach won't let me hear the end of it! Remember: You are mighty!
See ya!